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14-year NBA veteran center Jonas Valanciunas may return to Europe next season, with his home country team Zalgiris Kaunas among the EuroLeague teams interested in signing him, according to BasketNews sources. Valanciunas, who turns 34 on May 6, still has one year left on his Denver Nuggets contract. However, the franchise holds an option to terminate it in the summer. This could happen either by the Nuggets themselves or if Valanciunas is traded to another NBA team. The Lithuanian center will remain under an NBA contract until July 8, 2026. This date was extended from June 30 ahead of last season, giving Denver the opportunity to trade his contract after the free agency period begins on July 1.
The Lithuanian center will remain under an NBA contract until July 8, 2026. This date was extended from June 30 ahead of last season, giving Denver the opportunity to trade his contract after the free agency period begins on July 1. In exchange for the timing change, a $2 million compensation clause was added. This means Valanciunas would receive this amount if his contract is terminated by July 8. According to BasketNews, several EuroLeague clubs are monitoring the situation, including Zalgiris Kaunas.
After all, he was already sacrificing. A starting center for close to his entire NBA career before this season — 90.5% of his games, to be exact — he took a back seat to three-time MVP Nikola Jokic when he arrived in Denver. He’s averaging 13.2 minutes per game, more than five fewer than his previous career-low. So when he faded out of the rotation entirely in recent weeks? David Adelman believes Valanciunas is well within reason to feel miffed about that as a competitor, as long as it doesn’t become a distraction in the locker room. And it hasn’t, the first-year Nuggets coach vouched this week. “I would say he has been as professional as you can be in this situation,” Adelman said. “And professional in our game means he should be pissed off — and he was — because he wants to play and help the team. Not because it’s about him. … He’s been great on the bench. He’s been great in film sessions. He’s worked out extremely hard. He’s done everything you ask of somebody to do. So I have complete trust in Jonas.”
After logging single-digit minutes in six of the first 10 games of the month, Valanciunas was a DNP-CD (did not play, coach’s decision) for five consecutive games. That streak ended last Sunday when he checked in for six solid minutes against Golden State. Jones had left the game with hamstring tightness. “I will stay ready. What am I gonna say?” Valanciunas told The Denver Post when asked about Denver going a different direction. “Am I pissed off?” He allowed that question to linger for a moment and go unanswered. “As long as we’re winning the game, you know,” the 33-year-old continued. “I’m here if you need me. I’m here. I’m gonna do everything (I usually do). So it’s simple as that.”
As the Nuggets try to finally get him one this spring, what exactly will his role be in the playoffs? Adelman’s message to him, for now, is to stay ready. “We will see,” Valanciunas told The Post. “When they need me, I’m here. I’m working. I’m ready. No question about it, 100% here. And I’m 100% ready.”
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Victor Wembanyama had a season-high 41 points and 16 rebounds while collecting the third-fastest double-double since 1997-98, and the San Antonio Spurs won their ninth straight, defeating the Chicago Bulls 129-114 on Monday night. Wembanyama had 10 points and 10 rebounds in his first eight minutes, 31 seconds on the court, collecting his 10th rebound 1:55 into the second quarter. It was the third-fastest double-double in the play-by-play era, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, behind only Boban Marjanovic (8:13) in 2017 and Jonas Valanciunas (8:08) in 2025. Wembanyama punctuated his season high with a driving, one-handed dunk for his final points midway through the fourth quarter. He was 17-for-27 from the field and 3-for-6 on 3-pointers in scoring at least 30 points for the 14th time this season.
Bennett Durando: David Adelman, Bruce Brown and Jonas Valanciunas spoke to media today after practice. All three were asked by @TroyRenck if Lu Dort's comments to @JoelXLorenzi acknowledging he went "over the limit" mean anything to them. All three said "no" with no further comment.
KJ Simpson played his first meaningful minutes since joining the team on a two-way contract last week. His fast-break flush late in the third quarter capped an 11-0 Nuggets run and sent them to the fourth with a 77-67 lead, the first double-digit margin of the night. That run carried over with a pair of buckets from backup center Jonas Valanciunas. When Jokic was out of the game, Adelman continued to ride a bench unit with Johnson staggering — not that he had a surplus of other options with Murray, Aaron Gordon and Peyton Watson all out. “KJ didn’t show up here thinking he was going to play,” Adelman said. “He warmed up, it seemed like, four hours before the game. That’s his warm-up time. So he’s been sitting around here not doing anything. And then Jamal gets sick. He’s out. I felt like it was appropriate to let him play in the first half out of fairness, so gave him a few minutes there. And I personally thought he looked comfortable.”
Jake Fischer: Was in Denver’s pregame locker room tonight at MSG. Every time Jonas Valanciunas walked back in, he’d grunt “Anybody get traded?” The safe guys laughed. And this week is a spectacle. It is wild, though, when you stop and appreciate someone getting ready to go to work truly might have to pack up their life in a matter of minutes.
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Jonas Valanciunas coming to NBA: Coming here, total different league, different culture, different language, different country and I was in Canada, now I got to adjust to Canada and then adjust to the US, so it was not the easiest thing to do but I had some people who helped me big time and I got comfortable slowly, step by step, teammates… I had Linas Kleiza with me at the Raptors. Another Lithuanian guy, he helped me a lot, put me in the right directions, translated for me. So, it was cool.
